The smiley face is available to buy from Black Ops 4's Black Market for 200 COD Points, which costs £1.79. There's no way to obtain it without forking out real world cash.

Here's how it looks for sale in the Black Market:

And here's how it looks in-game:

This isn't the first time Activision has turned to reticles for revenue. On Christmas day last year, the company sold a red dot reticle for a dollar. Merry Christmas! But this smiley face reticle microtransaction feels particularly ridiculous given it was available in Black Ops 1 and 3.

Now, £1.79 won't be a big deal for a lot of people (round these parts that's a fifth of the price of a pint), and this is a cosmetic DLC that doesn't impact gameplay, but it's the principle of the thing, isn't it? We're talking about a reticle here. That costs £1.79. In a full price video game. (Activision declined to comment when contacted by Eurogamer.)

Black Ops 4 is, fundamentally, a fantastic shooter and I've had a huge amount of fun playing standard multiplayer and the brilliant battle royale, Blackout. It's a shame, then, that the game is undermined by microtransaction missteps.

Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here.